Surface area modelling for the craters and ejecta produced during 4.1-3.8 Ga: implications for the Late Heavy Bombardment of the Moon
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Resumen
En la década de 1970, un grupo de investigadores estimó la edad de las rocas lunares traídas por la misión Apollo, encontrando muy pocas de ellas con edades anteriores a 4.2 Ga. Para explicar esto, se propuso que en las etapas tempranas, tras la formación del sistema solar, hubo un aumento en la tasa de impactos de tal manera que se destruyeron las rocas más antiguas. Este evento hipotético fue llamado originalmente “Cataclismo lunar terminal” y renombrado posteriormente como “Gran Bombardeo tardío” (LHB, Late Heavy Bombardment, por sus siglas en inglés). Con el tiempo se han dado argumentos y contraargumentos para sostener, o no, esta hipótesis. En este trabajo, se empleó un modelo para estimar el área cubierta por los cráteres de impacto y sus eyectas continuas considerando que la tasa de impacto decae exponencialmente entre 4.1 y 3.8 Ga sin la presencia de un aumento súbito en la producción de cráteres, es decir, sin considerar un escenario tipo LHB. Para estimar el área afectada por la formación de un cráter de impacto, consideramos tres escenarios en los cuales las extensiones de sus eyectas fueron de 0.5 Rc, 1 Rc y 1.5 Rc, donde Rc es el radio del cráter. El área de la superficie de la Luna cubierta en cada caso fue de 83 %, 95.7 % y 99.2 %, respectivamente. Esto indica que un LHB no es necesario para explicar la carencia de rocas con edades mayores a 4.2 Ga. Si bien estos resultados no son por sí mismos suficientes para rechazar la hipótesis del LHB, contribuyen en la discusión de este tema.
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